Vince Beiser is the author of “The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization.” Beiser has reported from over 100 countries, states, provinces, kingdoms, occupied territories, liberated areas, no man’s lands and disaster zones....

Explorer and story-teller Craig Childs has published more than a dozen critically-acclaimed books, including his most recent, "Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America." He is a contributing editor for Adventure Journal Quarterly....

Philip Connors was born in Iowa, raised on a farm in Minnesota, educated at the University of Montana and disillusioned by a stint of corporate journalism in New York. He is the author of two previous books, "Fire Season" and "All the Wrong Places....